The San Francisco District Attorney's office released still images, on Friday, Feb. 24, 2012, from a video shot by neighbor Ivory Madison of Eliana Lopez displaying a bruise allegedly sustained after a heated argument with Lopez's husband, Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi.

Photo: Paul Chinn, Courtesy Of The San Francisco Di

The San Francisco District Attorney's office released still images,...

Eliana Lopez, the wife of suspended Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, accused her neighbors of fabricating details of an argument she had with her husband that left her with a bruised arm and put his job in jeopardy.

Lopez filed a seven-page sworn declaration with the city's Ethics Commission on Wednesday, the day before Mirkarimi is scheduled to testify in the fact-finding hearing on the official misconduct charges Mayor Ed Leefiled against him.

Lopez, who is on an extended visit to her native Venezuela with the couple's 3-year-old son, said the criminal and administrative cases against her husband have gone too far.

"Ross does not drink, he does not use drugs, he does not have lovers, he just worked too many hours and maybe I was not the right woman for him," Lopez said in her written statement.

"Ross has never hit me, punched me, battered or beat me," she added. If anything, he needs counseling to be "a great father and husband."

Lopez said Mirkarimi wouldn't be fighting to keep his job had her neighbor, Ivory Madison, not betrayed her by reporting the Dec. 31 arm-bruising incident to police without her permission. Lopez said she told Madison about the injury under the belief that she was a lawyer who could help her in a potential legal battle with Mirkarimi over custody of their son, Theo, should they end their rocky marriage. Madison, who is a law school graduate but not a lawyer, said Lopez confided in her as a friend and that she contacted police to get more information on Lopez's options.

The day after Mirkarimi bruised his wife, Madison shot a short video of Lopez discussing her troubled marriage and showing the bruise. Police seized it by search warrant in the earlier criminal case, and now the Ethics Commission is expected to decide Thursday whether the mayor can use it in his case against Mirkarimi.

Lopez focused a good portion of her declaration going after Madison, a key witness for the mayor. For starters, she said, Madison never should have involved police. Lopez also said her neighbor made up details of their conversation about how and where Mirkarimi bruised her. Lopez said it happened when he grabbed her arm during an argument in a parked car as she tried to remove their son from his car seat.

Madison said Lopez told her the next day that the argument extended into the home, where Mirkarimi "slammed her against a wall while grabbing her arm and refused to let go."

Another neighbor, Callie Williams, also stated that Lopez told her the argument continued at home.

"I never said to Ivory or anyone, including Callie Williams, that Ross and I argued anywhere but in the car," Lopez said in her declaration.

Ultimately, the fact that there are differing accounts will be used by lawyers on both sides to question the credibility of witnesses.

Thursday's Ethics Commission hearing is set to begin at 5:30 p.m. at City Hall. Another session has been scheduled for Friday morning, when the mayor is expected to testify.

The commission will forward its recommendation of whether Mirkarimi should keep his job to the Board of Supervisors, which will ultimately decide his fate.

A new leader: San Francisco's Superior Court judges have chosen Cynthia Ming-mei Lee as their presiding judge after a first-ever contested election that involved disagreements over recent budget and staff cuts.

Lee, a former prosecutor appointed to the bench by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1998, has served as assistant presiding judge for two years and normally would have routinely succeeded Presiding Judge Katherine Feinstein, whose two-year term as the court's leader expires Dec. 31.

But Lee was opposed by Judge Harold Kahn, forcing a secret-ballot election. The court announced Wednesday that Lee had won but did not release the vote tally.